40 Fun Facts About Little and Large

Which ITV show, where viewers' postal votes picked the winner, turned Little and Large into household names in 1971?

Opportunity Knocks put the pair in front of millions after nearly a decade of slogging round northern clubs. Even then, a series of their own was five years away.

Little and Large's contrasting builds led to comparisons with, and dance tributes to, which Hollywood double act?

Laurel and Hardy were the obvious match for a thin, timid stooge and a round, bossy partner. The pair leaned into it, recreating the film duo's dance routines in their shows.

Little and Large became a double act after Eddie Large did what during Syd Little's pub singing spot?

Heckled him: Eddie found the shy singer irresistibly funny and kept interrupting from the audience. Over a drink afterwards they planned an act built on exactly that.

Eddie Large realised a lifelong ambition on television by joining which glam rock band for their Christmas hit?

Slade were guests on the same programme, and when Eddie confessed his dream, one of the band stepped aside and let him take his place for their festive chart-topper.

Eddie Large was a lifelong fan of which football club, whose old ground stood opposite his childhood home?

Manchester City played at Maine Road, directly opposite the terraced house where he grew up. He played schoolboy football himself and stayed devoted to the club all his life.

Which presenting duo reunited Little and Large in 2018 for a sketch serial on their weekend entertainment show?

Ant and Dec brought the pair back together on their Takeaway show after years in which, by Eddie's own account, the two had not spoken.

Eddie Braben helped script Little and Large's first series after making his name writing for which double act?

Morecambe and Wise left the BBC for ITV in 1978, and the corporation groomed the younger pair to fill the gap, with the older duo's writer already on board.

Eddie Large grew up in north-west England, but in which city was the Little and Large comedian born in 1941?

Glasgow was home for his first years: the family lived in a tenement in Oatlands after his father came back from wartime service in the navy, then moved south when he was a boy.

Which operation on Eddie Large in 2003 brought Little and Large's four decades as a regular team to an end?

Heart transplant surgery at Papworth in Cambridgeshire followed a warning that the strain of touring could kill him. He recovered fully but never returned to the old pace.

Syd Little joined other famous pensioners in 2018 for The Real Marigold Hotel, a travel series set in which country?

India was the setting, as in the film that inspired the title. His travelling companions that year included the Krankies, Bob Champion and Stanley Johnson.

The Little and Large Show was a fixture of BBC One's schedule on which evening of the week?

Saturday evenings belonged to the pair for more than a decade: the sketch show ran for eleven series and drew many millions of viewers at its peak.

Which cartoon lawman was among the characters Eddie Large impersonated in the Little and Large act?

Deputy Dawg sat in a repertoire of cartoon voices that also took in Popeye, Fred Flintstone and Woody Woodpecker, while his partner simply stood beside him looking distressed.

Little and Large made one of their final joint appearances in 2019 on the celebrity edition of which quiz?

Pointless teamed them up again in February 2019, in its edition for famous contestants, little more than a year before Eddie's death.

Both halves of Little and Large sat on the celebrity panel of which BBC game show during its first year, 1979?

Blankety Blank put them on its panel in the show's first year, alongside Patrick Moore and Wendy Craig, and had them back for a Boxing Day edition in 1986.

David Renwick wrote sketches for Little and Large in the late 1970s before creating which hit sitcom?

One Foot in the Grave was a hit for a whole decade, and its creator also turned it into a novel. He had learned his trade supplying gags to sketch shows, this duo's among them.

Which future ITV game show host worked as the warm-up man for Little and Large's theatre shows after winning New Faces?

Michael Barrymore did the same job for Larry Grayson on The Generation Game, and ITV later made him the host of Strike It Lucky.

Which one-word nickname did Eddie Large hang on his partner in the Little and Large act, always placed before 'Syd'?

Supersonic was the joke: the timid, feeble-voiced singer was anything but. Eddie's character insisted that his hapless partner had immense talent.

Little and Large were among the acts to appear on which BBC children's show once hosted by Leslie Crowther?

Crackerjack built a comedy double act into its format, between team games and a pop spot, and sent every runner-up home with one of its much-envied pencils.

Which future comedy great made weekly musical appearances on BBC Radio 2's The Little and Large Party?

Victoria Wood supplied a song each week on the radio spin-off, around the time her television partnership with Julie Walters was taking shape.

Before Little and Large, Syd Little worked the pubs as a solo singer accompanying himself on which instrument?

Guitar in hand, he stayed in character for decades as the earnest crooner who never got to finish a song. In 2022 he sold his signed electric one on a television auction show.

Whose song did Eddie Large sing when he first joined Syd Little on a pub stage, the start of Little and Large?

Cliff Richard supplied the first number the two ever performed together. Both men had started out as singers, and the jokes only took over later.

Eddie Large of Little and Large learned which trade after leaving school, while singing in pubs on the side?

Electrician by day and pub singer by night, he had wanted to be a comedian since childhood but had no idea how to go about it until he met his future partner.

In 2015 Syd Little of Little and Large cooked in the heats of which BBC One contest?

Celebrity MasterChef was no great stretch: away from television he and his wife ran a restaurant in a pub on the Lancashire coast.

Little and Large sat on opposing teams in a 1995 edition of which BBC Two panel game?

Shooting Stars put the two on opposite teams in its first series, and Matt Lucas, its scorekeeper, later recalled how kind and encouraging both men had been to him as a newcomer.

Little and Large appeared in the televised 1988 and 1989 shows for which charity, but were absent from its 1991 line-up?

Comic Relief had by 1991 become a showcase for a new generation such as French and Saunders and Vic Reeves, and the BBC dropped the older pair's series that same year.

Which football show teamed Eddie Large with Peterborough's Mark Little in 2010 as a newly reformed Little and Large?

Soccer AM spotted that a Peterborough player shared the missing half's surname and filmed sketches with the new pairing through the 2010–11 season.

Which comedian booked Little and Large as the first guests of the 1998 series of his Channel 4 sketch show?

Harry Hill opened his second Channel 4 series with the pair in October 1998, seven years after the BBC had cancelled their own show.

Which presenter hosted the ITV talent contest that gave Little and Large their big break in 1971?

Hughie Green fronted the contest for years, always insisting that the viewers at home had the final say. Other acts he introduced to the nation included Les Dawson, Mary Hopkin and Pam Ayres.

Little and Large's early club dates included the Embassy Club in Harpurhey, a venue owned by which comedian?

Bernard Manning bought a dilapidated billiard hall in 1959 with £30,000 borrowed from his father and turned it into the club he ran for the next forty years.

Syd Little of Little and Large first performed under his real name, which was what?

Cyril Mead billed the early act as Cyril Mead and Friend, then Mead and McGinnis, before the size gag supplied both men with new surnames.

Syd Little of Little and Large went on to run a restaurant in The Steamer, a pub in which Lancashire port?

Fleetwood, the old fishing port at the mouth of the Wyre, became his home, and he ran the pub's restaurant there with his wife and son.

Eddie Large's 2013 solo single parodied a notoriously steamy 1969 duet written by which French songwriter?

Serge Gainsbourg sang the 1969 hit version with Jane Birkin, and it became the first foreign-language song to top the UK chart. The spoof was Eddie's first record without his partner.

Little and Large appeared on which quickfire ITV impressions show of the 1970s, later revived as Copy Cats?

Who Do You Do? fired off items as short as 30 seconds each, and its cast list also included Russ Abbot, Faith Brown and a young Les Dennis.

Fatima Whitbread, a guest on The Little and Large Show in 1987 and 1988, was then world champion in which event?

Javelin gold at the 1987 World Championships made her one of Britain's best-known athletes, and she was soon a familiar guest on prime-time entertainment shows.

Steve Pemberton wore a wig modelled on Eddie Large's hair for an episode of which twist-in-the-tale television series?

Inside No. 9 put him among four men rowing over who pays for dinner in the episode The Bill; he kept his own beard and borrowed only the hairstyle.

Raymond Allen scripted nine editions of The Little and Large Show after creating which hit sitcom?

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em was a BBC hit of the 1970s, and its creator later turned to writing sketches for double acts, Hale and Pace among them.

Syd Little of Little and Large earned his living in which trade before his pub singing led to show business?

Interior decorator was his job after leaving school in Wythenshawe; evenings were for singing in pubs, which is where his future partner first saw him.

Which ITV company made Little and Large's first series in 1977, at the urging of producer Royston Mayoh?

Thames gave the pair a pilot in 1976 and a full run the following year, before the BBC lured them away for a stay of more than a decade.

Syd Little's 2005 reality-show comeback, working as a holiday rep, was filmed on which Mediterranean island?

Cyprus hosted Trust Me – I'm a Holiday Rep, which set its famous recruits to work for a real tour operator across ten nightly programmes.

Eddie Large spent his later years in a coastal town just outside which English city?

Bristol's Southmead Hospital was where he died in April 2020; home was in nearby Portishead, overlooking the marina.